I have been such a busy small bear that I have been neglecting my blog, and I still haven't told you about the last part of our journey home from Manchester.
In the morning, Grizzly and Polar took us back onto the main line of the Bridgewater and through the Preston Brook Tunnel to the Trent and Mersey Canal. We didn't like it, as there are no lock-keepers to make sure nobody is coming the other way. Instead, you have to follow instructions about the time you can go in, which should mean boats heading north don't meet southbound boats in the middle!
Not far south of the tunnel, at Dutton, are some lovely moorings with views across the Weaver Valley, where we were cruising this time last year. They were built when the canal had to be repaired after a breach a few years ago. We sat on the fence and looked for trains on the viaduct across the river in the far distance.
The following day, we reached the famous Anderton Boat Lift, which had taken Uppie and all of us down onto the Weaver the previous autumn. Today, we were staying on the Trent and Mersey but we still stopped nearby, to visit the site and enjoy a delicious veggie cooked breakfast.
Hanley Bear was delighted to find another of his Transport Trust red wheels!
In the museum, we learned about the history of the boat lift and about the volunteers who campaigned to save it - we even met one of them, who is now a very old man. Then we enjoyed our breakfast, out on a sunny terrace overlooking the lift.
Polar carried us down to the river for a better view of the lift and to see Saturn, a Shropshire fly-boat. These were express narrowboats, if you can imagine such a thing, pulled along by horses in the days before there were engines.
We had a gentle cruise on from there to Billinge Flash, one of our favourite moorings, where we always see at least one kingfisher.
The evening was very still and the following morning there was a beautiful sunrise.
There are no locks until Middlewich, so Polar let us help her decorate some painted spoons, while Grizzly steered Uppie. We painted the patterns along the handles and Polar said she thought we did very well and should be proud of ourselves.
We decided we liked Middlewich, as it has a pub called the White Bear, where they do very nice Sunday lunches. Grizzly says there is a Folk and Boat Festival there in May - maybe we will go to that next year?
Polar and Grizzly had lots of locks to work Uppie through after Middlewich, so we bears stayed in the saloon where it was quiet and safe while all the water was rushing around outside.
There are thirty-two locks between Middlewich and Kidsgrove and, although you can get up all of them in a day, Polar and Grizzly like to break the journey into two or three days, so we don't rush. We stopped before we reached the two deep locks at Wheelock on our way back home.
That still left twenty-eight locks to get back to Kidsgrove. Many of the Cheshire Locks are in pairs, because this used to be a very busy route and this allowed boats to pass each other rather than having long queues build up at single locks.
Sometimes we went to see what was happening outside and sometimes we stayed inside, reading our Observers books.
We knew we were nearly home when the water started to turn orange, due to the iron in the Harecastle Tunnel.
When we got back to Kidsgrove, Polar let us nap in their bed while she packed everything away and Grizzly fetched the car to ferry our luggage back home.
We closed our little bear eyes and wondered where our next journey might be...
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